At least 28 are feared dead in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, the result of a private bus falling into a gorge around 9:15 this morning.

I took a quick look and was struck by the anaretic 11th house Mars in Cancer forming a 29-minute partile conjunction to the Part of Fortune. (Mars is also forming a 2°08′ orb in a conjunction to the Sun, but I’m separating it by parentheses now since the distance between Mars and the Sun is obviously not a partile conjunction. Nevertheless, it still warrants being noted.)

But the closer I looked, the more intrigued I became since Neptune forms a 33-minute partile conjunction from inside the 6th house to the 7th house cusp in 34-minute partile square to the MC and in square to both the Moon and Venus. But look closely because Venus also establishes the bridge in opposition to Saturn, which creates a mutable T-square between the Moon-Venus opposition to Saturn in square to Neptune–all on the angles!

The Uranus-Chiron semisextile (30°) resolves in the 2nd house at 13 Libra 35 with a 1° 58′ orb to Jupiter, close enough for me to call this a Blooming Undecaquartisextile rather than a Resonant one. (To refresh the memory of students and those new to the term “undecaquartisextile,” this is a 165° aspect, an historically and mathematically validated degree, thanks to astrological and historical researcher Philip Graves.) While Saturn isn’t in tight formation of a Grand Fire Trine to 8th house Uranus and 12th house Mercury, I wouldn’t make the mistake of ignoring this as a Grand Trine all the same–especially in the 4/8/12 terminal house complex.

I wonder whether there might have been some lingering early morning fog or haze around the gorge area that could have been at least partially responsible for the accident. The Moon-Venus conjunction to the MC even with the square to Neptune might speak of a pleasurable spiritual journey, perhaps as part of a larger gathering at a public locale. The news stories are still coming out so I’m simply hazarding a guess based on what I see in the chart. Because of this, however, I decided to pull up the natal chart for India and placed the accident outside.

Perhaps the most stunning point of the chart came at my noticing the transiting Sun in its 32-minute partile conjunction to the nation’s 3rd house Moon in Cancer! But transiting Mercury just established its conjunction to the nation’s Leo Sun in a mere 1°35′ orb. The Ascendant of the accident forms a 14-minute partile conjunction to the 5th house cusp–pleasure, or were these mostly parents who would be leaving children behind? sighhh

I also noticed the 25-minute partile semisextile between transiting Uranus and the nation’s North Node, resolving in a Blooming Undecaquartisextile at 3 Scorpio 40 in a 20-minute partile conjunction to the nation’s natal 6th house intercepted Chiron. But then there’s still another ironic point of transiting Uranus in 3-minute partile opposition to the nation’s natal Vertex (considered a “fate” point in the chart). Is this fate? Maybe so. When I was retrieving this article, I noticed several accidents that seemed to be similar with an oddly coincidental same regional focus. Could it be that this particular area would do well to upgrade their road system especially around the road and the landscape through which travelers are journeying? It would seem so.

As I looked at the two charts in this way, the 22-minute partile quincunx (150°) between the accident’s Neptune and the nation’s Saturn confirmed what I expected to find through another unforgettable placement, that of the Peeling of Life’s Onion, the hard aspect of Neptune and Saturn. In this sense, it is also the reason I wanted to explore this chart not for solutions perhaps as much as my trying to understand what seems to be a recurring situation in certain areas of India. If Himachal Pradesh is even remotely like other areas where such crashes have been occurring, it seems only logical that the nation needs a serious upgrade on the roads at this time. A vibrant nation in which its citizens want to explore for its beauty, its spiritual treasures, its historical significance in their lives deserves to protect these travelers. After all, natural beauty doesn’t mean safety has to be quickly forgotten. That is a lesson all of us need to remember, regardless of where we are or where we’ve been. It is one of our common denominators.